Hockey Season: Overall Outlook

Student Reporter: Jarred Lucas


With the conclusion of the high school hockey season comes the prospectus of the second coming, the playoffs. Overall it was a mildly successful season with an 8-11-1 record. Although it sounds like a bad record, there is more to it than meets the eye. The Sheboygan Red Raider combined hockey team is placed in arguably one of the toughest conferences in the state of Wisconsin, the Badgerland Conference. This conference includes state champion Fon du lac, state semi-finalist Appleton, top ten ranked Notre Dame, along with a cast of other successful programs. Collectively, the Red Raiders hold a 0-4 record against those teams putting a big damper on the win-loss columns.


There is, however, a bright side to all of this, an overall improvement from last year not only in the record but on the ice as well. After only losing three players to graduation, the future looks bright. With an opening record of 1-5-1 in their first seven games the season started slow and disappointing, but after a crucial win against conference rival Waupun at home, the Raiders took a winning attitude into the Christmas break. This momentum carried right into the holiday tournament in Minnesota where the team was able to take top twenty ranked St. Michaels/Albertville into a tight third period only to come out with a 5-2 loss. The goalie was pulled towards the end of the game to add another offensive threat on the ice, but the substitute resulted in two empty netted goals. This seemed to be a turning point for the Red Raiders who ended up with two big wins over Fairmont (Minnesota) and Somerset (Wisconsin). Now the team had a positive outlook coming back to Wisconsin with a couple big wins under their belts, only to find Fon du lac and Notre Dame in the coming week. With a tough road stretch ahead of them they boarded the bus for three straight games and came out a week 0-3.


“Up to this point it’s been an emotional season with its ups and downs. We just have to find our winning ways again.” Said Coach Keith Bartholomeus. Revamped and ready the Red Raiders took advantage of their home ice going 4-2 down the stretch. With a solid finish to a successful season, the Sheboygan Red Raiders combined hockey team was able to clinch home ice in their playoff opener and a sixth overall seed.

CLC Wrestling Tournament

Student Reporter: Ariel Beutel


This past Saturday, February 7th, 2009, the wrestling teams of Cedar Grove-Belgium, Ozaukee, Random Lake, Oostburg, Sheboygan Lutheran, and Elkhart Lake gathered at Sheboygan Lutheran High School for the CLC tournament. Each wrestler had a match against the opposing team’s wrestler at their weight class. They competed against each other for conference champ and for their team as a whole to win conference. Cedar Grove- Belgium took fourth in conference but had four conference champs and one wrestler who took second in conference. The conference champs include, senior, Brandon Garcia, juniors, Wayne Paulus and Chris Scholz, and sophomore, Tyler Garcia. Freshman, Zach Schulz took second in conference. When asked about the CLC tournament Brandon Garcia replied, “Team wise we wrestled well, but due to the lack of numbers we took 4th.” This Saturday, February 14th, 2009, Cedar Grove-Belgium’s wrestlers will be competing in the Regional Tournament in Random Lake. Good Luck wrestlers!

Honors Choir

To some, choir is the last class of the day. To a few people it is a stress reliever, and to others, it is a rare form of art and emotion. It is a smile, a tragedy, a way of life. Choir to those people is the best time of the day. They work hard and try to improve and excel in their music skills. It is because of their dedication and hard work that seven members of the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School Choir were chosen by Linda Ruona to represent our school in the CLC Honors Choir.
Alannah Bruggink, Cody May, Jordan Dykstra, Britney Lemke, Jackie Schrader, Eva Lee, and Richard Beabout were this years representatives for Cedar Grove-Belgium. There were nine schools that attended: Cedar Grove-Belgium, Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah, Howards Grove, Kohler, Oostburg, Ozaukee, Random Lake, Sheboygan County Christian, and Sheboygan Lutheran.


On December 13th, all the participants met at UW Sheboygan to practice with the directors from the different schools. They prepared the songs and got familiar with the rhythms and notes. After Christmas break on January 8th, the students went to practice again with a clinition. This year’s clinition was Greg Carpenter, the choir director at Marquette University. All the songs were practiced for the concert and the little problems were fixed.


The concert began at 7:00 pm at UW Sheboygan. The first song was “Eliza Jane” followed by “Roses I Send To You”. “Workin’ for the Dawn of Peace”, “Homeland”, and “Esto Les Digo” were the next three songs in the concert. The last song, “Praise His Holy Name!” was an upbeat spiritual and was a favorite of the majority of the participants. The concert lasted only twenty-five minutes, but the theatre was filled with beautiful music that left goose bumps and shivers with the audience. The 67 participants worked extremely hard and performed a breathtaking concert.

DECA Competition

Student Reporter: Lyndsey Weyker
On January 9, 2009, two of our high school students participated in the Southeastern Wisconsin District DECA competition. DECA is a club where people compete in a topic of their choice that deals with business. The competition was held at Kettle Moraine High School in Wales, WI and it was held from 8am to 5pm.The students were Amanda and Alex Isken. Amanda is a senior this year and her brother Alex is a sophomore. Amanda and Alex competed in the Buying and Merchandising; they got a perfect score on the role playing event. Amanda and Alex placed 2nd out of 61 teams in that event. The Buying and Merchandising event had over 600 students in the entire event that the Isken siblings participated in. They received medals and a trophy for their outstanding job at the competition. Amanda and Alex’s next challenge will be the State Competition on March 17-18th at Lake Geneva. When asked their feelings on making it this far Amanda and Alex said, “We were shocked because we were so new to DECA.”

Crunch Time

Student Reporter: Nick Bornheimer


Students feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, frantically working to finish a semester’s worth of work in a few days, it must be exam time. It happens every year, students working tirelessly, attempting to make their last minute preparations for the grueling three days of testing. “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done,” said Jason Croatt. “I just hope my procrastination won’t come back to bite me this year.” The stakes are high, and students know they must be on their “A” game because of the impact exams have on semester grades. An exam can be worth anywhere from 10% to 20% a students semester grade, meaning it is crucial to study hard and not let your laziness get the best of you.


This year though, circumstances are a bit unusual. School was canceled on Thursday the 15th and Friday the 16th due to the frigid temperatures, which meant the students had two less days of review for their exams, and the teachers had two less days to prepare. There was a meeting called on Monday morning before school to discuss the best course of action in dealing with exams, and it was decided to keep exams on their original days. This means that teachers had to crunch to determine what was fair game for their exams, and students are required to do a lot more work outside of the classroom. Most teachers have decided to shorten their exams, and allow for more perks. Teachers allowing students to use their books for a particular amount of time would be one example. In some cases, wishful thinking can come back and complicate things significantly.


It is important not to let the stress from exams get to you, because stressing out about them will only make them worse. If you study properly and you paid attention throughout the semester, exams are basically only a review of what you know. So think positively and don’t get filled with disparity, exams aren’t terrible if you prepare yourself accordingly.

Winter Band Concert

Student Reporter: Lyndsey Weyker


On Monday, December 15th, there was the annual winter band Concert that took place in the High school gym. The 6th grade band started off the concert. They were directed by Thomas Paulson. Then the rest of the middle school bands performed, which were directed by Lori MacRae. After the middle school bands were done, it was time for the high school bands to show their skills. The freshman/sophomore band performed and was then followed by the junior/senior band. Both of these bands were also directed by Thomas Paulson. All five bands did an amazing job and got everyone at the concert in the Christmas spirit.


After the concert there was a cookie sale that was held to help fund-raise money for the next Florida trip that will be taking place in 2012. All the cookies that were being sold were made by the very own parents of the high school bands.


There was also a collection of gloves, hats, and scarves at the entrance doors of the concert. All the donations of the winter articles were going to be donated to the Ozaukee County Salvation Army and Saint Vincent to Paul. Since we have two counties in our district, we switch off on donating winter wear to Sheboygan and Ozaukee County.

Spanish Student of the Quarter

Student Reporter: Brittany Anzia


The Spanish student for the first quarter is senior Jennifer Schmidt. Daughter of Jim and Debbie Schmidt, Jennifer’s favorite classes are Spanish II and Street Law. Her favorite things about school are that she gets to see her friends and her teachers are awesome. When asked about how she felt when Sr. Flynn first told her that she was Spanish student of the quarter she said, “At first I was surprised, but then after he explained it, it made sense and I agreed that I have changed my attitude towards Spanish.” Jennifer’s future plans include going to Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa and majoring in social work.